


Gambling

by Yalu



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: AU, Gen, Lies, Male-Female Friendship, Secrets, Teamwork, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 00:58:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3630729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy wasn't quite fast enough to duck the camera, and Daniel sees. </p><p>AU from 1x02 Bridge and Tunnel. Daniel and Peggy (and Jarvis) friendship and teamwork.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gambling

The club photographer. Damn, she'd forgotten about that.

Sousa was untroubled, sitting forward and smoothly opening the envelope over the top of the racing journal. This was the first time she knew of that he'd been given any part of an investigation as his own so there wasn't much chance he'd hand it over entirely, but– "Well, that would be a big break. Can I help you look?"

"I thought you were leaving," he said, and pulled out the pictures. Peggy's eyes flashed over the top one: Nothing, just a bit of her long wig and sleeve behind someone's shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing urgent, I just have to pop out some time in the next hour," she said lightly, watching intently as he turned over the first photo to see the next. "I'm awfully curious why a woman like that would be involved with Raymond."

He turned over the next photo and went very still. "Yeah," he said, strangled. "I can see why."

Peggy glanced quickly around the room: The only other agents still in were several rows of desks away, having lunch. If she were very quick, Sousa could be silenced before they noticed.

She crushed that thought and waited. When he turned to her, his face was like stone.

"I swear this isn't what it looks like."

"Yeah?" he said icily. "'Cause it seems pretty cut and dry from here."

He held up the photo. It had been close; half a second later and all they would have caught was her hair, but she hadn't turned quite fast enough. The line of her cheekbone and tip of her nose were still peeking out, enough to be recognised as her profile by anyone looking closely.

"This is you," he accused. "You were _there_."

"Yes. But I didn't kill him; he was alive when I left."

Sousa looked around hastily, leaned forward and demanded under his breath, "What were you doing there?"

She hesitated, weighing the options. Besides the unabridged truth, there weren't many. His eyes were fixed on her, tearing apart that pause.

" _Don't_ lie to me."

She matched his gaze evenly. "I was trying to retrieve Howard's invention before it could be sold."

He waited, jaw clenched. _Not good enough._

"It was only supposed to be a piece of paper with the formula. I didn't know they'd weaponised it and I didn't see the buyer. Or the seller. There was nothing useful to give the SSR."

"Convenient. Raymond?"

"I needed to know where the nitramene was and who had sold it to him. I left him unconscious but alive."

Sousa pulled himself up to standing, never taking his eyes off her. The intensity was unnerving. "And the bouncer with staples in his face?"

"He was in my way."

There was a threat in there, though she hadn't meant it that way. Daniel wasn't swayed; he leaned in on his crutch and hissed, "You know I could put you in handcuffs right now. Even with half the guys at lunch, you'd never get out of here."

She stayed perfectly still. "I know."

It probably wasn't true; even if Sousa shouted for help before she could escape or silence him, confusion and speed would get her at least as far as the lift, and getting ahead of her then would require calling the guards in the lobby; even if they got Rose on the line in time, she could spin enough lies about him being a spy to pit the ladies against the agents, and the lobby guards wouldn't know her on sight. Describing her would take long enough that Peggy could probably clear out through the north doors. Disappearing into the crowd would only be a temporary measure, but–

Sousa took her elbow and tugged her sharply towards the meeting room, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one else was watching. She let him. He walked them in, around the table and to the far wall on the left, where only people sitting at back desks like theirs, or in Dooley's office, could see them. He let go of her arm roughly and faced her. "What's going on, Carter? The truth," he added.

"I went to La Martinique to retrieve the nitramene formula before it could be used to do any damage. That's _all_."

"How'd you know about it?"

She tilted her chin back, staring him down. "I listened in when I brought them coffee. Thompson's plan wasn't nearly good enough. Mine worked."

"No: How'd you know it was called 'nitramene'?"

Peggy bit her tongue, far too late to catch that slip. _Damn_. She let out a breath. "Howard left me notes on how to neutralise it."

Sousa hissed. "You're in contact with him?"

"No."

He scowled and shuffled, his version of pacing on the spot. "Okay, you don't trust me with details, fine, but you've got to give me more than that if you want me to trust _you_."

Peggy unclenched her hands from the folds of her skirt and took a step back herself, glancing out at the main room (still mostly empty) and back around at Sousa. There were some things she could safely tell him: mostly safely, that was. "I'm not in contact with Howard. I don't know where he is."

That much was entirely true. Sousa nodded. "And?"

"He swears his inventions were stolen and I believe him. These are the experiments that failed, are incomplete, or entirely too dangerous to be out of his hands. Howard doesn't trust anyone with them, and he has no financial motive dire enough to sell anything of the sort, let alone to enemies. More importantly, if there's any chance he's innocent that means there's an equal chance that another party is out there, selling his technology to the highest bidder, that the SSR isn't even looking for. There's no way to know how much damage they could cause. I had to do _something_."

Sousa closed his eyes and leaned heavily on the back of a chair. He sighed and rubbed his head. "I want to believe you."

"I know. I'm trying not to take advantage of that."

For a brief moment, he chuckled tightly, but it was gone in a flash. "What did you find?"

Peggy watched him, staying on the balls of her feet but loosening her shoulders to seem more relaxed. "More than I bargained for," she replied. "I was followed home, by the buyer I expect. He– He murdered my roommate. She was blonde."

That got a reaction from him, a genuine one as far as she could tell: He winced and looked at her with sympathy. "I'm sorry."

Peggy nodded tightly. That would at least give him something to trust, but using Colleen left a bitter taste on her tongue.

He waited, appearing patient, and Peggy let him. The wariness was still there, if less hard now; he wasn't that good at hiding it. Plus he had all the same training she did in getting information out of people; empathy was just a card he played well.

Usually because he meant it.

"The weaponised nitramene emits vita rays," she went on briskly, skipping details about Mr Jarvis and Vanko as best she could. "I used them to track down which of the possible refineries could be used to produce the compound. It's rather unstable," she added blandly. "What happened at Roxxon was just one bomb. The man I found there escaped with a truck full."

" _Jesus_. You're sure?"

"I saw them."

He nodded. "You know where they're going?"

Peggy opened her mouth, Dairy Clover's milk truck and _Sheldon McPhee_ on her lips, then closed it. For just a moment she'd felt like a real, acknowledged agent discussing a case with her peer, and that was a dangerous path to tread. Even in the best of circumstances, if he honestly believed her...

If. And while he wasn't a brilliant actor she wasn't so sure she would see through him if he decided to play her now, to use her to find Howard; likely because, she admitted, she wanted to believe him too. An ally in the office would be invaluable. But to trust him with everything, with how Howard escaped and Mr Jarvis' involvement, with her plans and with Leviathan... It was just too big a risk. No.

Not yet.

"Do you believe me, Agent Sousa?" she asked at last, careful and formal. His shoulders straightened, squaring up to her question. "Not that Howard is innocent as a fact, but that it's a possibility, and that I'm telling the truth about what I saw, about Raymond's death, and that I wasn't trying to hinder the investigation."

He watched her face, eyes barely moving as he studied her, and said nothing. In the main room, agents were coming back from lunch, chatting and having a laugh about something; if they looked inside they would see her standing just a little too far from Sousa to be casually discussing work. There was a buffer there, a space that left room to run or fight; either was possible.

Peggy took one step closer, forcing her arms to hang loose and easy by her sides. She stood facing him, waiting. With any other agent, she would be calculating how to throw them off, verbally and physically, enough to salvage her cover or get away, but here... she honestly didn't know what would happen.

Her throat was locking up. "Daniel, do you believe me?"

Another three long, painful seconds passed, and then he sighed. "God help me. Yeah, I believe you."

She felt a weight fall off her shoulders. "Then you'll destroy the photograph?"

He handed it to her, just like that, and Peggy blinked in surprise; that left only his word against hers to fall back on if he turned her in. "I'll check the others, see if the camera got lucky twice. If you walk by my desk in a few minutes I'll be able to hand you any under a report folder. No one should see it."

"Thank you," said Peggy.

She studied him. Maybe, just maybe, he could be trusted. There was no reason to think the SSR would continue to step on her toes as she investigated; they'd only had the one lead on a sale, aside from Sousa's diverted attempt to track Howard's boat, and the Roxxon disaster should keep them busy for a while. But if something did come up, Daniel was in a far better position to mislead Thompson and Dooley than she was.

Maybe. But not yet, and not here. More agents were coming back from lunch, and being seen whispering was the worst thing they could do.

He knew that: he glanced out, nodded at her and lifted his crutch, heading for the door. Peggy stepped ahead to hold it open politely, and as he passed she had to say, " _Thank_ you, Daniel. I realise you're putting a lot of faith in my word alone."

He offered a little smile. "That's why they call it gambling."

**Author's Note:**

> This will stay a one-shot for now, but if I can make it work (if! IF! No promises!), there will be more chapters in the future. Ideally, I'd love to run it parallel to all eight episode with Daniel as part of the the Peggy-Jarvis power team.


End file.
